About the Series:

The objective of the Reynolds Historical Lecture Series is to review, assess, and discuss various historical aspects of the health care sciences. The series runs from Fall to Spring. The Annual Reynolds Lecture is the foremost presentation in this series that brings speakers of prominence to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Click here to see a list of all previous Annual Reynolds Lecturers.

Earning CMEs at Reynolds Lectures:

The University of Alabama School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The University of Alabama School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 credit(s)™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

2011-2012 Schedule

Unless otherwise indicated on the schedule, all lectures are held from noon to one in the Ireland Room, 3rd floor, Lister Hill Library, 1700 University Blvd. These lectures are free and open to the public. Box lunches are available on a first come, first served basis.

September 15: “Traditional Hawaiian Healing and Western Influence,” Kathryn Hilgenkamp, Ed.D., LPC-S, LPC, CHES, Private Counseling Practitioner and Academic Advisor/Associate Professor, Webster University

Click here to view this lecture online. This lecture was held in conjunction with the NLM traveling exhibit, A Voyage to Health, on display in the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences from July 18 to October 21, 2011.

October 19: “Science, Identity and Southern Medicine: Spurious Vaccination during the American Civil War, 1861-1865,” Shauna Devine, PhD, Assistant Professor/Managing Editor, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Duke University

Abstract: Drawing on more than 600 published and unpublished case reports (largely taken from the Arnold G. Diethelm Civil War Medicine Collection at UAB’s Historical Collections) this paper examines the debates surrounding vaccination during the Civil War and post-war south. The body was the key site of political contestation. Soldiers feared contamination and violation of their bodies and resisted the state’s compulsory program of vaccination. Physicians on the other hand worked diligently to prove their medical and scientific expertise by conducting an elaborate research program which investigated all aspects of vaccination—how the vaccine worked in the body, lymph supply, vaccination provision and practice, and new developments of disease theory. This paper examines the investigations into “spurious vaccination” including the nature of the experiments and the findings.

November 10: “‘Medicine is a Man’s Game?’: Women Physicians in the Movies,” Patricia E. Gallagher, MLS, MA, AHIP, Reference Librarian, New York Academy of Medicine

Click here to view this lecture online.  Abstract: In 1952, the first biographical film about a woman physician, The Girl in White, was released by MGM. What at first glance seems like a unique achievement in Hollywood, the story of a woman doctor who chooses career AND husband rather than just opting to be a housewife, The Girl in White was actually one in a number of films in which women physicians opt to remain on the job after marriage. While other career women in film were giving up their careers, what made movie MDs fall into a different category? Why did Hollywood opt to portray women who could have both a home life AND a career, when films portraying other jobs sternly showed that they could not? This paper will discuss this phenomena, and what makes medicine a totally different career choice.

February 3 - 33rd Annual Reynolds Lecture: “The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln,” Carl R. Boyd, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery, Mercer University School of Medicine

This lecture will be held at 4:00pm at The Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium, 615 18th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35202.

March 14: "The Dawning of the Great Age of Librarians: Breaking the Barriers of Time and Space," T. Scott Plutchak, MLS, AHIP, Director, UAB Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences

Click here to view this lecture online.

April 12: "Medicine and Memory in the Oral Histories of Alabama's Black Physicians," Jack D. Ellis, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Click here to view this lecture online. Following the lecture, there was a book signing of Dr. Ellis's Beside the Troubled Waters: A Black Doctor Remembers Life, Medicine and Civil Rights in an Alabama Town.